Committee officers help lead OSHR safety efforts

  • Published
  • By Shawn Jacobs/ Patrick Ary
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  Dave Everett, Otis Eady and Mitch Kendrick would be the first to tell you it's a team effort. But Catherine Plunkett, director of the Aerospace Testing Alliance (ATA) Safety and Health Group (SHG), recently singled out these men for spearheading a number of successful safety initiatives by the Occupational Safety Health Representative Committee (OSHR).

Plunkett recently called Everett, chairman; Eady, co-chairman; and Kendrick, recorder; the "cornerstones to this committee," which was formed in 2010 with the goal of facilitating safety communication in the craft areas at Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC). The OSHR Committee, which meets once a month, includes 35 craftspeople from across the base.

"This committee played a big role in helping us with the [safety] glove selections and have continued to provide the SHG with suggestions for improvements to PPE (personal protection equipment) and other safety concerns," she said. They are great at bringing safety concerns up and then giving input to the solution."

Plunkett praised the men for publishing the first OSHR newsletter, which came out Jan. 31.

"They took the initiative on their own to develop and publish this and send it out."

Everett, a lieutenant with the Arnold Police Department, where he heads Installation Security Section/Plans and Programs and serves as alternate antiterrorism officer, said he initiated the newsletter to share information - and maybe a little humor - with the OSHR.

"Because we have such a diverse group out here, what might mean something to a police officer might not have significance to somebody in the trades," he said. "I also want to provide a little information and the safety topic of the month. We wanted to get together and basically just try and get some ideas by putting our names out there. It shows who's involved in it [the OSHR]. It shows the leadership."

Everett said the OSHR draws its strength from its diversity.

"The different organizations here on base have been having safety meetings," he said. "When the [OSHR members] come in, they discuss what's going on in their respective workshops - the meetings they have in the morning before they go to work. Any new safety ideas they might come up with ... we exchange these ideas.

"It's Beyond Zero, it's Roadmap to Recovery, it's safety commitment. It makes it a whole lot better when a group gets together like this [and] you can see results."

Everett said the OSHR draws on information provided by ATA General Manager Steve Pearson and other senior leadership.

"We hand it out to the OSHR and talk about other initiatives and issues," he said. "There is free training that is offered that if people have the time they can participate and we've had people do that."

One of the committee's initiatives involves producing two safety videos - one of them featuring Otis Eady - demonstrating the right (safe) and wrong way to perform certain tasks.

Eady, the co-chairman and a lead outside machinist in the Von Kármán Gas Dynamics Facility (VKF) Compressor Building, said he'll be demonstrating the danger of high-pressure air in the video.

"I'm going to demonstrate what high-pressure air can do to a paper towel instead of using your hand because it will cut," he said. "That's what we use - a rag or something that will tear fairly easily - to find a [high-pressure air] leak.

Eady said the idea of getting the craft more involved in safety is a good one.

"It's working in a lot of cases," he said. "There are things that have been asked of me, and I bring it up in the committee meeting. It's a collective group to talk it out. Somebody brings up something and if we can't come up with something there, then Safety's (SHG) sitting there and they will offer their idea on it.

"When it can be discussed, you've got pipefitters, you've got boilermakers, you've got Ironworkers, so everybody can see something that you may not see."

An achievement Eady is proud of is a much shorter Job Safety Analysis (JSA) that will be used for smaller jobs - something that could save time and, possibly, money.

"Instead of having a big paper for a JSA, we got them to agree to a smaller one- or two-day job [form] instead of the big paper," he said. "So we can use the smaller one for small jobs instead of having to do all this whole paperwork just to do a small job." It's been named the Job Safety Review and it can be used is the job will be completed in three days or less.

Eady has developed somewhat of a reputation as the "safety guy" in the VKF Compressor Building.

"Here in this building, if somebody doesn't feel safe about something, they'll [often] call me first," he said. "We'll discuss and most of the time get our supervisor, Jason Farris, and we'll come up with a plan to be safe and not get anybody hurt.

"And that's what it's designed for. People see me in the plant and I'll say, 'You know that's wrong,' and they'll just stop and ask what they need to do [to be safe]."

Mitch Kendrick, a power switchboard operator who works out of the Power Control Building, has served as the OSHR recorder since its inception.

"I basically schedule the meetings and record the minutes and publish the minutes for the committee," he said. "Also, I do bring in other input from our section, from the electrical side of the house."

Kendrick's contributions to the committee have included concerns about the lockout/tagout safety initiative.

"On the electrical side of the house the biggest safety program we have really is our lockout/tagout, or our holdover system, and we basically run the holdover system out of our section here in Power Control," Kendrick said. "We noticed some discrepancies in some of the procedures in the paperwork trail that we were getting back that made us concerned that [they] might not be followed properly.

"I brought that up to the Safety Office at a committee meeting, and we're in the process of a review of that process to make sure that everyone understands. We use a lot of electricity out here, and if you're not safe with it, it'll get you."

Kendrick said the OSHR is making a positive difference in safety at AEDC.

"It seems like we have - just from the fact of clarifying some of the things that come in our safety standards - there was a question that came up about what locks should be used for lockout/tagout, and we determined what it should be. We've talked lately a lot about hardhats with some clarification on some OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) guidelines."

Eady, too, is gratified that the work of the OSHR may have already prevented some injuries.

"People will come to you now," he said. "They're more open than before. At least we have a voice in it now. I think it's great; I've enjoyed the time I've spent on it.

"Yes, we've made a difference. The whole committee has made a difference. The only thing that I say is that more people need to come to it. If you're on that committee, you need to try and make every meeting.'"

Everett, who is quick to share credit for the OSHR accomplishments with Eady, Kendrick and the entire committee membership, is proud of the group's contribution to safety improvement at AEDC.

"I'm excited about it because we've actually put these initiatives into practice," he said. "We don't just preach it; we practice it."